Frank Howard had a deep, gentle voice and piercing eyes. The man ran away with her purse, leaving the bag of food on the rain-soaked driveway and Nancy bleeding on the garage floor. 380 caliber bullet entered her left temple, traveled through her sinus cavity, down her throat, and stopped in her right lung. Before he pulled the trigger, she cried out: “Jesus, save me!”Ī. Then he lifted the gun and pointed it at her face. She could see him getting angry, and she shoved her purse at him with both hands, pushing him back a step. In a moment of panic, Nancy tried to give him her purse but handed him the Taco Bueno bag instead. He repeated himself, louder this time: “Give me your purse!” He was in his 20s, with facial hair, wearing a black baseball cap, and holding a silver gun. A man she’d never seen before stood in front of her. She wrestled away, turning to face him, and the seriousness of the moment caught up with her. She heard the young man demand her purse, but the words didn’t register. That’s when she felt someone grab her around the neck and put a gun to her head. She pulled into the garage and got out of her car, carrying her purse and her Taco Bueno bag. Then the 53-year-old mother of three grown children drove to the family’s immaculate two-story brick house on Bluebonnet Way, where she expected to relax in front of the TV. On her way home, Nancy stopped at Taco Bueno and picked up a steak fajita dinner in the drive-through. By the time she left First Baptist again, just before 7:30 in the evening, it was raining. After tea, she went home before returning to church for a baptism service of a family friend. Her husband Frank had helped her pack the decorations into her car before he’d left on a business trip a few nights earlier. There was a women’s tea, and Nancy was hosting two tables. In the morning, she headed to the First Baptist church in Carrollton, not far from her home. Nancy Howard had no idea someone was following her that day.

Susan woods dateline